Best quality Relays?

[jamiehamy 0]

Hi all,

 

You may have seen on a thread a while back that my car almost went up in flames after one of the relays in the upgraded loom burned out (and strangely never tripped the fuse). I checked the other two which ewre on other side, but they were intact inside, no sign of any corrosion, so not quite sure why this happened.

 

I'm thinking of putting it back in, but will need a new relay (will do all 3).

 

What is the best quality brand to go for? Can I get a weather proof one? They will be strapped to the battery so should not be directly exposed to water or anything, but I want the best quuality possible.

 

Any thoughts welcome. (I'm not putting the relay in the car, would be aqll day trying to extend wires and would look awful!).

 

Cheers, J

[VR6 0]

If you just wanted to get the relays inside, it wouldn't be that difficult or messy. Certainly a lot easier than running a cable to the boot for an amp for example. There's a hole in the firewall in the passenger footwell. You should be able to at least get them inside and out of view fairly easily. Although with your past scare, that might not work as you may want them accessible.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

The only 'uprated' things about those cheap, schitty looms is uprating your chances of fire or total darkness in the middle of winter.

 

Anything in the engine bay is vulnerable to water ingress. Don't assume for one minute your relays being tucked up behind Daddy battery in any way protects them from water! People seem to assume water ingress comes only from direct splashing. Wrong. The biggest cause of water ingress is airborne moisture. It corrodes up the fuse terminals and gets inside non-sealed relays.

 

The best way to do it BY FAR is build the loom *inside* the car, where the environment is dry and gets warm regularly. There's a wiring loom on how to do this in my gallery thread.

 

The closest thing I found to a proper waterproof relay socket is this - http://www.relayspec.com/Company_listings/c/custom_connector/news/2011/06_13a/BR05-WP%20Brochure5-20-11.pdf but it's in America. No one in the UK seems to have cottoned onto it.

 

Reliable automotive relays are Omron, Hella, Tyco etc etc. Avoid unbranded sheet.

 

Apologies for my tone, but Granddad wire is sick of reading about posts where these naff looms have failed ;) Surely people only need to learn once, but people keep buying them!!

Edited November 5, 2012 by Kevin Bacon

[jamiehamy 0]

Thanks guys. I kinda suspected this would induce an outburst from you Kev but I'll take your points on board. Tbh I'm not very neat and tidy with wiring and can see this ending up a big guddle :(

 

I spent a good whack on that relay with OEM connectors, hopefully I can at least save them. LIghts are truly shocking without it tho but I dont' have much faith in the loom - why would one relay go like that whilst the others are perfectly intact, no corrosion at all?

 

One other wee thing - any idea why I blew about 2 leadlamp bulbs a month when I had the relay fitted. I used a variety of bulbs just in case, Phillips, Bosch, Halfords but still blew frequently. Maybe related to the relay...or maybe I have a dodgy alternator putting out a high voltage?...hmmm...

[KipVR 1]

I'm totally in agreement with Kev here about getting them in the car, although it seems many Corrado's are wetter inside than out!

 

At the very least find a waterproof box to put them in, and then if they do burst into flames again the lack of oxygen will soon put it out!

[STU175 0]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=281008465283

expensive but good idea

[MurdoMac 0]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=281008465283

expensive but good idea

 

Quick question, would it be possible to uprate the bulbs with this kit without problems? and is there any more load put on the light switch?

[KipVR 1]

That kit won't actually fit a Corrado! The connectors are different, unless I'm missing something?

[Kevin Bacon 5]

That's the way to do it if you want to keep everything in the engine bay!

[VR6 0]

I'm guessing one relay does the spots and there's one relay for each of the headlights? Presumably 4 relays would be overkill?

 

Quite tempted by that one above for the Golf - seems quite a nice OEM solution.

[jamiehamy 0]

I like the look of that loom, but yeah, not sure if it'll fit without modifying. I like the relay part - that's all I want/need.

 

I need to do something soon, the lights are simply atrocious. You'd have thought waterproof/resistant relays would have been a fairly obvious thing? OR am I missing something?

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Best you can do mate - http://www.summitracing.com/parts/hla-h84709001 Trying to finding this sort of thing in the UK is tiresome.

 

I've used SummitRacing before and they're excellent. Maybe some enterprising chap or chappess could import a shed load of them and start producing 'deluxe' weatherproof looms :D

[jamiehamy 0]

We're off to New York at Christmas - do you think they'd send to a hotel there?! I don't suppose Customs would be too upset with a couple of these in our suitcases?

 

Oh - now there's a thought. By chance, my old boss is visiting her sister in New Jersey at the same time we're in NY and we're meeting up whenshe takes the kids to see Santa. This could work...haha

I can just imagine my other halfs face tonight when I tell him I'm picking up car parts during our honeymoon...lol

Edited November 7, 2012 by jamiehamy

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Yeah I know people who've had parts shipped to their hotel before, no probs :D

 

Only snag is you need the matching Hella 4RD 933 332-031 relay to go with it, and finding that seems to be a mission as well.

 

I tried to do it this way myself as I didn't want the hassle of another box in the engine bay (there were enough things in there at the time anyway!), but I gave up and did it internally instead. I must admit, everything inside and just seeing a standard looking loom running to each bulb is neat and great peace of mind. Proper fit and forget :D